Altenew Exotic Garden Stamps/Dies/Stencils/Embossing Folders Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

May the forth be with you crafty friends! (A little Star Wars humor from this nerdy cardmaker I couldn’t resist!) Today’s the day Altenew releases new stamps, dies and other crafty goodness. I have created several cards to inspire you and I think one or two of these might be some of my favorite cards I’ve made! If you didn’t land here from Amber’s blog, you can start the hop over at Altenew’s blog first. I have all the details of a giveaway and the full hop list is at the end of the post.

My first card features the absolutely stunning Simply Spring stamp set. This set features an absolutely gorgeous bouquet of spring flowers just perfect for watercoloring. I decided to do no-line watercoloring with the Artists watercolors and pale gray ink (Silver Lake), and let me tell you, this took quite a white, but I love it. I considered framing it as I couldn’t bare to cut it down for an A2 card! I also added a few touches. of white gel pen for highlights.

I decided to use the coordinating die and cut it out (holding my breath!) and rather than cutting it down, adhered it with foam tape to a 5 x 7 notecard. To give it a little more stability, I used the die to cut out another outline from 110lb cardstock and adhered it to my watercolor piece before using the foam tape.

To finish my card, I kept simple, I stamped this sentiment from the Sweet Gingko set in Obsidian Black ink. I wanted something a little smaller but still scripty to fit in the bottom and this was perfect. I also added a few dew drops for subtle shine.

If no line watercolor isn’t your thing (or you don’t have hours to spend on a card) here’s a quicker and easier way to use this image using a technique I featured on my YouTube channel last month (here’s the link if you missed it).

I created a stencil using the coordinating Simply Spring die first, and placed it over a panel of white cardstock. I then used Fresh Lemon and a mini ink. blending tool and blended it from the centre out towards the edge, stopping about 3/4″ from the edge of the outline of the DIY stencil. I then used Fucshia ink and blended in from the edge and overlapped the Fresh Lemon a little to create a gorgeous corally color. Lift up the DIY stencil and you have a lovely silhouette.

I dried the panel and placed it in my MISTI, then aligned the Simply Spring stamp over the top. I used my powder tool to make sure the ink was fully dry and free from static, then stamped the image in embossing ink and heat embossed with Rose Gold embossing powder. I finished by stamping a sentiment from the set directly on the panel in Obsidian Black Pigment ink and adding a few coordinating sequins.

My next card is a little crazy – or ‘FDO’ (For Display Only) as my friend Ashlea says. I’m featuring the Succulent Layering Die set. This die set cuts various. concentric die layers which you can pop on top of each other to create a Succulent. I did a few ‘extra’ things to mine to get this more realistic look (inspired by this image).

I first die cut each of the layers (including the centre strip) from Solar White cardstock (80lb). I then used alcohol markers in pinks and blue greens to scribble color onto the pieces, saturating the cardstock, blending a lot, and also coloring the BACK of the piece too. This takes a little time but doesn’t have to be perfect coloring. Saturating the paper really helps the colors blend and gives you this realistic look (the mottling from lighter colors really adds to the realistic texture) without being a colorista. I used colors Sunshine Valley, Rock Garden and Water Garden but you can pluck anything you like -scribble enough and it will all blend!

To get the 3D look, before pulling my pieces together, I used a stylus to score a line down the centre of every frond, then pinched the pieces to fold down the score line and curled a little at the tip. I repeated this for all the pieces, and rolled up the centre strip. I adhered them all together with pieces of foam tape to create my little succulent.

For my background I adhered strips of washi tape using the new Sea Shore and Cherry Blossom Slim Washi sets. I crossed them towards the right side and adhered my succulent over the top. The sentiment is from the new Carpe Diem sentiment set stamped in Obsidian Black ink.

For my final card, I’m featuring the Sweet Gingko stamp set. I stamped it in embossing ink onto a teal panel of cardstock and heat embossed in Antique Gold embossing powder. Using a blending tool, I blended Azurite ink around the outside in towards the centre. I then added Dark Night ink around the edges for a little drama! I splattered with some white acrylic paint, and water (the ink reacts to create splatter patterns). To finish I stamped a sentiment from the Carpe Diem stamp set in Obsidan Black ink onto the panel and mounted it onto a white note card to finish.

GIVEAWAY

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 05/10/2021 for a chance to win. 

Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 05/12/2021.

Your next stop on the hop is the amazing Svitlana!

Jenny x

Supplies

The Altenew supplies were provided to me as part of my design work for them. If you purchase through my affiliate links, I receive a small amount of compensation which helps me run my blog and channel to bring you more crafty creations! Thank you for your support.

Full Hop List

• Altenew Blog
• Jennifer McGuire
• Jaycee Gaspar
• Amanda Baldwin
• Nicole Watt
• Vicky Papaioannou
• Emily Midgett
• Carol Hintermeier
• Norine Borys 
• Erin Thompson
• Agnieszka Małyszek
• Helen Kalb
• Amber Rain Davis
• Jenny Colacicco >>>YOU ARE HERE!
• Svitlana Shayevich >>>GO HERE NEXT!
• Erum Tasneem
• Kymona Tracey
• Keren Baker
• Virginia Lu
• LauraJane
• Lilith Eeckels
• Linda Westfall
• Maryam Perez
• Michelle Short
• Therese Calvird
• Verity Biddlecombe
• Tania Ahmed
• Sandhya Iyer
• Reiko Tsuchida
• Seeka
• Nathalie DeSousa
• Teresa Litchfield
• Laurie Willison
• Ardyth Percy-Robb
• Tina Smith
• Tricia Schaden 
• Joylita Dsouza
• Nandini Karmarkar